Mihaly Karolyi

Mihaly Karolyi (4 March 1875-19 March 1955) was Prime Minister of Hungary from 31 October 1918 to 11 January 1919 (succeeding Janos Hadik and preceding Denes Berinkey) and President of Hungary from 16 November 1918 to 21 March 1919 (preceding Sandor Garbai). He was a member of the Party of Independence and '48.

Biography
Mihaly Karolyi was born in Budapest, Austria-Hungary in 1875, and he entered Parliament in 1905. Of liberal views, he favored a less pro-German policy for Austria-Hungary and equal rights for all nations within it. As leader of the Party of Independence and '48 from 1913, on 31 October 1918 he became Prime Minister, and thereafter President of Hungary. He tried hard, but not very successfully, to cope with the problems of demobilization and economic collapse that followed the end of the war. When these problems were compounded by the loss of what Hungarians regarded as their historic heartland, Transylvania, the national outrage was such that he was deposed by Bela Kun on 21 March 1919. He went into exile, but returned to become Hungarian ambassador to Paris from 1947 to 1949, where he sought and gained renewed exile. He died in Vence, France in 1955.